Prison Tears
by Keys Studio
Summary: I can hear him. He's crying again, trying to sleep again without a friend close enough to comfort him. I want to hold his head in my lap and cover his ears, to let him sleep peacefully. Too bad these bars and cuffs are keeping me from that. AU, Cobra x Midnight, yaoi, blood, violence, and language. I do not own Fairy Tail, Hiro Mashima-sama does!
1. Chapter 1

How could it have happened?

Brain, Racer, Angel, Hoteye, Midnight, myself... How could we have been caught so easily? It had been a simple 'rob the bank and hightail it out of there' kind of mission...! It was possibly the easiest task that we had ever been given...! Yet, somehow, the police had been called and we had been arrested...! Now, we were stripped of everything that we ever owned, ever had. Our homes, our belongings, our treasures,our status, everything. Even Cubellios had been taken from me. She had been, as the authorities told me, taken to live in captivity. I didn't want to think about little children or teenagers or adults gawking at my friend through a layer of one inch protective glass at some exhibit. It just didn't sit well with me at all.

Our sentence - given to us on the account of 'numerous charges of gang activity, bank robbery, rape, and attempted murder' - was forty years long (thirty in the case of Hoteye since he had been the traitor among us), thirty-five (twenty-five for Hoteye) with probation if we were on 'good behavior'. I, for one, didn't think that I would live long enough to see the sentence through to the end. I would probably be killed for mouthing off or something like that. Of course, at the time, I didn't know that the guards would have broken it up before it got that far, but I didn't learn that until after three years into my sentence. It would be a long time before I learned that.

Before all that, though, we had all been cuffed together to strangers or, in my case, a friend, riding in an old, rusting bus to our fates, Brain in the very back cuffed to some pyscho who kept laughing at nothing, Racer in the front cuffed to some crack addict woman, Angel three seats ahead of me cuffed to some mental guy who kept pissing himself and talking to voices that weren't there, Hoteye was two seats behind me in the oppsite side of the aisle cuffed to a woman who didn't seem to know the meaning of 'shut up' (no matter how many times the policemen that were near the two kept threatening to throw her out the window if she didn't be quiet), and Midnight was right beside me, his wrist cuffed to my own. It wouldn't have been so bad of a ride if it had not had been for the back tires being flat to the rims and bumping on every damn bump there was on the planet and the fact that the seats we were forced to sit in were next to cushionless. I was beginning to think that the driver of the old heap of scrap metal was driving the unpaved, pot hole filled roads _on purpose_.

I couldn't help but feel sorry for the others. Out of the six of us, only Midnight and I were going to get off at the nearest prison. Everyone else had to change out buses at least once. For Brain, it would be nearly seven times to get to California, for Racer, five times to get to Florida, for Angel, three times to get to Wisconsin, and for Hoteye, four times to get to Kentucky.

I glanced over at Midnight only to see that he was out like a light, his head tilted forward with his chin to his chest, his crimson eyes closed. His thick lashes seemed to be thicker somehow with his eyes closed. The things you seem to notice about your friends when you have to sit next to them with handcuffs holding the two of you together at the wrists. Honestly. Then again, it was probably because he wasn't wearing his usual makeup for once. He would have to get his eyeliner and lipstick back, or else he will look so strange to me for a while... Being cuffed to him, though, made me think about something.

Why was Midnight going to the same prison as me in New York whenever everyone else was being split up all across the country? It didn't add up in my head for some reason.

I chose not to think more into it, just deciding to watch my friend sleep. He always looked so peaceful in that state. Never cocky, never arrogant, just peaceful. I found it... intriguing. I could hear each breath he took and exhaled expand and shrink his lungs in his chest, the expelled air bouncing off of his black vest. I could see his brow and fingers twitch every now and again. I could tell that his sleep was purely for rest, not to dream. It was a dreamless sleep. I wished that I could have that kind of sleep right about now. For him, the trip would have felt like a few minutes when he woke up. To me, it was over an hour. An hour that was highly uncomfortable and boring.

When the bus stopped at the prison, it was time to wake Midnight up and stand. I tapped his shoulder, gently whispering in his ear that we were there. He woke, but he didn't move to stand. When I stood, he sighed, standing himself. He seemed relunctant to get off of the bus. Probably because he wanted his sleep to last longer than that one measly hour. Either that or he knew that we probably wouldn't be allowed to sleep until later. I knew that was going to be something that would bug him, but it was only for that single day, and I made a point to tell him that. He seemed a bit happy about getting to sleep between meals.

We trudged off of the junkmobile, noting how our asses were too numb for comfort. We were checked to see if we had anything up in our rectal areas (most embarrassing thing I think I had ever done in my entire life - dropping my pants and boxers in front of a bunch of guys that I didn't know including Midnight - _fan-fucking-tastic_) before the cuffs were removed then placed on us individually. We had to get a bunch of medical tests done to us before we could go to our cells, and that little process took nearly six hours. I hated waiting on the medical beds waiting for results just so I could go to my new living space for the next forty to thirty-five years.

I was clear of everything and I was given my orange jumpsuit to change into. Once I was changed, I was led to my cell, which, ironically, was placed a couple of cells away from Midnight's. I guess if they expected us to try and plot our escape, we wouldn't have been able to do it. Like we would try to anyways. It would be for the best just to wait it out. Even if we did try, though, we would have had to set up some sort of schedule to see when Midnight would be asleep and when the guards wouldn't be paying attention to us. Thanks to the male's sleeping habits, though, we would never have time to plot it out, anyways.

Before I was allowed into the cell, a guard took off my cuffs. I had been told by that very same guard that after dinner, we would be allowed to go hang out in the common room (it would be dark outside, so nobody would be allowed to go out for sports or anything like that). After that, I was locked into my cell. So, with the oh so great decision of my stomach bitching at me to feed it, I sat on the edge of my new bed, waiting to be released to go out to dinner. It wasn't a very long wait. Maybe twenty minutes? Maybe.

We were released and led to the dining commons, Midnight instantly finding me and walking up and beside me. Prison was very uncomfortably similiar to the child labor factory that we had been forced to work in as children. We knew that there was strength in numbers. Where he had his arms crossed across his chest as we walked, I had my hands shoved in my pockets. We already knew a great deal of what we needed to do in order to survive. We just had to learn the rest.

Once we had gotten our food (I decided on that very day just to drink my water and eat my bread only; I would give my leftovers to whoever asked for them), we sat down in front of each other by ourselves.

"I don't want to be here," were the first words out of Midnight's mouth.

"You and me both," I sighed, picking up my slice of bread and nibbling on it. It needed to keep my stomach filled for a while, so I wouldn't devour it right off the bat.

Midnight sighed as well, picking up his water and sipping it. I normally would have been expecting his plum colored lipstick to smear onto the glass, but I reminded myself that he wasn't wearing it. It was habit, I guess. "I don't like my cell, either. The bed is uncomfortable."

"We'll get used to it," I reminded him, a fourth of the way through my bread slice. I sat it down and sipped at my own water. "I don't think I'll survive forty years in this place..."

"We'll survive," he told me with a shake of his head. He picked up his own piece of bread, munching on it. He could easily ignore his stomach, unlike me, through his wonderful ability of sleeping through _everything_. "We have medical insurance here. They won't let us die unless we kill ourselves or kill each other."

I just sighed again, looking sadly at my tray. I soon finished my bread and water, my stomach feeling satisfied for the moment. When Midnight finished, we both went and put away our trays. We then went to the common room where Midnight promptly made me sit against the wall and sat beside me, laying his head on my shoulder and instantly going to sleep. How he managed to sleep so easily was beyond me. I gave up trying to understand years ago. I just allowed myself to be his little pillow for now, watching as people filed in, some going to sit in front of the TV to watch some Jeopardy or Dr. Phil and some going to random areas, sitting and chatting amongst themselves. Nobody seemed to pay us any mind, which was completely alright with me.

Midnight snuggled into me, finding me to be rather comfortable. If he collapsed and curled up with his head in my lap, I would have laughed. He always had some sort of fascination with sleeping on one of my body parts, whether it was my lap, my shoulder, my arm, Hell, even my chest, he would be asleep with no problem. I gave a small 'oof' when his head fell into my lap, his body curling up into me. I chuckled, shaking my head as I began to absently play with his hair. I knew that was coming sooner or later.

"What's with you two?" one voice asked us from in front of me. I looked up to see a lean, looming blond man staring down at the two of us with a raised brow, his arms crossed against his chest.

"He's a sleeper," I shrugged, playing absently with the braid that Midnight had made in the white of his hair earlier in the day. "Wake him up for no good reason and he will try to kill you, trust me." I showed him some bruises around my throat to prove my point (I had made the mistake of waking Midnight up that morning without giving him a reason and he tried to choke me until I told him why I woke him up).

The man shrugged, sitting beside me. "So, what are y'all's names? Mine is Laxus."

"I'm Cobra," I introduced myself. "And this is Midnight."

"Real names?"

"Sorry, but if I told you those, I would have to relive some pretty bad memories," I frowned.

"Understandable," Laxus told me, stretching out his arms above his head. "You two are from the Oracion Seis, aren't you?"

"Yeah, how did you know?"

"They were practically cheering that they caught you guys on the news a few days ago."

I groaned. "Of course..."

"Are you the only two here?" he asked me with a tilt of his head.

"Yeah," I nodded. "Otherwise, we're all seperated and scattered."

He nodded then yawned slightly. "You want my advice? Join my gang."

"Your gang?"

"Yeah. You seem cool. Plus, having a member or two of the most feared gang in New York City will really boost my stock a bit."

"Your stock?" I snorted.

"My trading and stuff," Laxus grinned. "I need cash and stuff for the one time a week we get the good stuff, after all."

"Good stuff?"

"Like sweets and cookies and Kool-Aid packets."

I was about to tell him that those things weren't really good, then I thought about it for a moment. I figured anything was better than eating bread every single day, breakfast, lunch, and dinner and drinking water all the time. Some flavor would be welcomed. "I guess..."

"So, what do you say? You in?"

"I don't know," I admitted. "I would have to talk to Midnight about it." I was a bit clingy in that aspect already. I didn't want to abandon my only real friend here.

"Well, if you're in, just tell him that he's in too," Laxus chuckled, crossing his arms behind his head. "You'll be set with me as your gang leader."

"Are you sure?"

"Definitely."

We kept talking like that for a while, some black haired guy named Gajeel eventually joining us. All three of us eventually got to where we were playing rock, paper, sciccors, lizard, Spock just to pass the time (by the way, if you're curious as to the scores there, Laxus kicked my ass through and through, but in turn, I more than easily handed Gajeel defeat on a silver platter). We were then told to get up, that it was time to go back to our cells. I woke Midnight and, before he could erase my existence, I told him it was time to go. We all stood, the duel haired male's hand grabbing mine tightly before withdrawing into his pocket. I had raised a brow. Well, that had been strange. We all left the common room, returning to our cells. I had found out that Laxus was across from me and Gajeel was across from Midnight, so I felt a bit at ease knowing that my friend would be watched over by someone who could hold his ground in a normal fight.

"Good night, Midnight," I called down to him.

"Night, Cobra..." Midnight seemed to yawn. I could hear him laying down to sleep.

"Night, Gajeel," I called.

"Night, Lizardface," Gajeel returned. I snorted at the name, shaking my head in disapproval.

"Night, Laxus," I said.

"Night, _Snakeboy_," smirked Laxus, sprawling himself out on his own bed.

"Ugh, no more nicknames, please," I said with a roll of my eyes. I laid down with a yawn. Midnight had been right. The beds were really uncomfortable. I pulled the blanket over myself, yawning once more. I curled up into myself, beginning to doze. Then I heard it.

Sobbing.

I knew who it was in an instant.

"Midnight..."

**[xXx]**

**My first prison AU! XD I'm sorry if it really isn't accurate; I'm just going off of some information that I found off of the interwebs~.**

**I hoped you all enjoyed~. Please, read and review! I like my reviews! So, review please. Please? Please? I will gives you hug if you review. XD**

**~Dawn**


	2. Chapter 2

**Before I start the chapter, I want to thank kisshufan4ever for helping me with the plot of this chapter. :3 Thank you!**

**[xXx]**

I could still hear him well into the night.

Night after night, well after we all had exchanged our 'good night's, he would cry, and I would hear him. It didn't matter if he tried to cover his mouth to muffle the sobs with his hands or his pillow or his mattress. I could still hear him, crying himself to sleep. I knew that he was probably holding his ears while he cried, trying to block out the sounds that were made outside of his cell. Maybe it wasn't the sounds outside of his cell that he was blocking out, I considered. He could have been trying to block out his own thoughts. I was sure that we all had heard him. Gajeel, Laxus, and myself... It worried Gajeel, the male seeing the younger as a little brother of sorts (even if he wouldn't admit it outright), but Laxus just dismissed it, saying that Midnight was the youngest out of us all when in all actuality, Midnight was probably the same age as myself. I could see through the blond though. He was just as worried as Gajeel and he knew it. I hadn't heard him cry in years... Not since we were in that damn _place_.

It didn't matter how many times I tried to bring it up, his crying, I mean. Midnight would always just close his eyes and go to sleep, his own way of avoiding having to answer me. It was something he didn't want to think about, let alone talk about. I just gave up on it, at least for the time being. If I knew him as well as I hoped that I did, he would tell me when he wanted to.

It had been over a week now since we had been placed in our cells, a week into our sentence. We had just been let out to go spend time outside, a couple of hours, I think. Gajeel was working out, Laxus spotting for him as he lifted his weights. From what I could hear of them, the noirette was already at two hundred thirty-seven. Midnight was near them, in clear view of all three of us, surprisingly awake. He was watching me, analyzing my every movement. I, myself, was playing basketball with some people from the gang. Freed was annoying about cutting me off from making a shot, but Bixslow was the weak point of the team. Where his eyes could stun you on the spot just from the overflowing emotions in them, the guy himself was pretty weak. My team mate, Lyon, had left to work out a bit with a male name Yuka spotting for him. They were in a different gang, but our territories were mingled, it seemed.

"You won't get by," Freed told me in a playful challenge, ready to move in either direction that I may have planned to move in.

"We'll see about that," I smirked, pretending to dart for the right when instead I headed for the left. The green haired male fell for it and I outjumped Bixslow, shooting a perfect three pointer.

"Six to five," I tallied up. "I win."

"Che," scoffed Bixslow, placing his large hands on his hips. He then patted me on the shoulder, chuckling in amusement. "I don't think I've seen anyone trick Freed so easily since the last time Laxus played."

Freed blushed in embarrassment. "Quiet," he told him, glancing away with a pout that made me understand just why Laxus liked him (he had told me in secret of his sexual orientation, but he assured me that he would never make a move on any guy there; I told him I would play the messanger between him and the greenette and let him know if he was the same and held the same affections for the blond, though I was pretty sure that he did).

The two began to bicker slightly, but their bickering ended with a bro fist and a bro hug. I turned to check on Midnight and quickly took note of some guys going to approach him. They weren't from our gang, I knew that much. I wasn't the only one who noticed. Laxus had made Gajeel stop in lifting his weights so he could observe what was about to go down. I had a vague idea myself of what they were about to do when I got a good look at them. They had bags under their eyes, suggesting they probably were kept up through the hours of the night thanks to the duel haired male's crying at night.

I could barely hear what they were saying, catching only bits and pieces of what they were saying. I caught one sentence that one of them actually had the gull to say.

"Maybe if we pump you up with our cocks, you'll stop crying like the little bitch you are!"

The one who had said that grabbed a handful of Midnight's hair, despite his struggles, and rammed his face into his buldging groin. The male tried to shove him off, tried to get away. "S-stop...!" he growled. It didn't sound as strong as it should have. It sounded weak and desperate. "Get the Hell off of me...!" The man just laughed, though, shoving the male's head right back against his groin.

"Come on, you little slut," the man said huskily. "I haven't got all day! I need this." He thrusted against Midnight's mouth, forcing him to cup his bulge with his petite mouth. "After you blow me off, my friends here want to have a bit of fun with ya too!" It was hard to watch. Laxus and Gajeel made to go get the guy off of the male, but I beat them to it.

I snapped.

I didn't know what I was doing.

I stormed over there, grabbing a horrified Midnight and hoisting him up, away from the man who had pretty much tried to fuck his mouth, holding him against my chest. His breathing had been ragged already. He was remembering things that he didn't want to remember, not once in his lifetime. I narrowed my violet eyes at the guys who just laughed.

"Oh, look!" one laughed. "The little crybaby bitch already has a cock to pound his little ass!" His friends laughed along with them.

"Enough!" barked the gruff voice of Gajeel. He was fed up with being only a stand by, it seemed. He stood beside me, cracking his knuckles threateningly. "Back off, you Einsenwald pricks. You're in Fairy Tail/Lamia Scale territory, so unless you want to deal with me, I suggest you scram."

They did as he told them, one lingering behind. Gajeel noticed and decided to act a part that I thought seemed a bit fitting. He took Midnight into his arms, holding him close. The smaller male allowed him, trying to calm down. "Are you okay, Baby Bro?" The one who lingered blanched and ran like Hell was on his heels. The piercing clad male scoffed. "Weak." He held the younger in his arms for a few more minutes, moving to wipe his lips of anything that could have gotten on them. He handed Midnight back to me. "You two just relax for now, you got that?"

I nodded.

"Good," Laxus said, coming up behind us. He had his hands in his pockets, tension rippling through his arms like electricity. He had not been happy about the guys picking on the male in my arms, either. His eyes were narrowed and seemed to be unreadable, but his body was screaming for a brawl. He wanted to pound those guys' faces in and we all knew it. What they did was unforgivable. It may have seemed like it was a horrible joke, but it was traumatizing to the victim, that being Midnight in this case. "I have to take to Lyon about a few things." He glanced back at Freed who had come to investigate. "Freed, stay close to Cobra and Midnight. If anyone tries anything, beat them up in the way only you can."

"As you wish, Laxus," Freed nodded.

Laxus turned his attention to Gajeel. "You too, Gajeel."

The noirette pounded his fist into the palm of his hand. "Gladly."

The blond looked over at Bixslow who had followed Freed. "I want you to go around our territory and make sure that there aren't any unwanted pests."

"You got it, Laxus," grinned the male, laughing with his tongue out of his mouth. We all then went our seperate ways.

Laxus went to Lyon, giving him some idle chat before the whitette put away his weights and stood, the two of them going off to somewhere a bit more private. Gajeel went back to his own weights, having Freed spot for him. Bixslow had disappeared, somehow, scanning the area for people in opposing gangs that didn't belong. I held Midnight against me as I had us sit down on the ground, leaning against the wall.

"You won't let it happen again..." whispered Midnight, clutching the white fabric of my t-shirt tightly with his fingers. "You promised... You won't let them... You won't let them do that to me... Right...? Not again..." He looked up at me with wavering, wide, crimson eyes. He looked so vunerable. It was hard to believe he belonged to the most feared gang of New York when he looked that way at me.

I rubbed his back in comfort, giving him a small smile. "I won't let anyone take from you again," I promised him softly. He nodded, relaxing. He closed his eyes and buried his face in my chest. He slowly began to stop shaking, his grip on my shirt loosening. I could hear his breathing even out and soon enough, he was fast asleep, his legs curled up over mine. He was like a kid in the regard that he could easily fall asleep without a sound when someone he trusted was holding him.

I sighed softly, playing with his hair. "I promised you that, didn't I?"

[xXx]

It was dinner time much to everyone's delight. Laxus was to my right and Midnight to my left, with Gajeel across from me, Bixslow in front of the duel haired male, and Freed in front of the blond. We were all eating our bread and meat patties quietly, occassionally glancing over at Midnight. He seemed to have had forgotten what had transpired earlier in the day. Either that, or he just didn't want to think about it. He had taken my hand hostage as we ate, holding it tightly and intertwining our fingers delicately. He was still bothered and a bit on the upset side, but for the most part, he was feeling better. When the guards had heard what had happened, the jerks who did what they did to Midnight were punished with no dinner and no breakfast/lunch the next day. Hunger was one of the best ways to deal with an inmate, but the punishment seemed too light to me. I, personally, would have shot them in the knees and them until they swear up and down never to do it again.

Gajeel offered to take everyone's tray up whenever we had depleted our food from their surfaces and everyone accepted. When Midnight handed him his tray, the older reached over and lightly ruffled his hair before standing. While the noirette went to put away the trays, the younger removed his hand from mine to fix his hair back. Where Gajeel could play the older brother role easily, Midnight could play the younger brother role just as well.

"Any news on Freed?" Laxus asked me when he leaned in close to me, his voice in a hushed whisper, glancing over at the greenette from the corner of his eye. He quickly returned his gaze to me, a hopeful look in them.

I pushed the blond away from my face with my hand. "I still have nothing, Laxus," I told him firmly. "Just like how I had nothing five minutes ago."

The blond huffed, rolling his eyes. He then decided to strike up a conversation with the green haired male in question, smiling and laughing. I would sooner go to Hell than to say that those two were not meant to be together. They were both shy as they come when it came down to it and by God, if I had to, I would take them by the backs of their heads and force them to kiss each other. It was driving me nuts having to hear them _both_ gush about the other in such a romantic, lovey dovey way that made me want to gag.

Midnight claimed my hand again, squeezing slightly. I glanced at him. "What is it?" I asked.

"Can I talk to you alone...?" he asked me softly, quietly.

I glanced at the others. Gajeel had sat back down and started to joke around with Bixslow. Laxus and Freed (dear God, I think I can _see_ the heart forming around them surrounded by many miniature hearts) were still flirting with one another, both oblivious to the other's advances. Nobody was paying us any mind, so I nodded. "Yeah, that's fine."

We stood, the younger leading the way to somewhere quiet and secluded. He found a closet, a janitor's closet, mind you, and led me inside. I turned on the light while he locked the door. He quickly turned the light back out. "I don't want anyone to find us," he told me in a frantic whisper. I couldn't see him, so I couldn't see what he was doing. He took my hand and held it tightly. "I can't stop thinking about it, Erik..."

My eyes widened in the darkness. He never used my real name unless he was being serious. "You can't stop thinking about what?"

"_Them_. What they did to me... Both today and all those years ago..."

I clasped my hand over his mouth instantly. "Macbeth, what have I told you about thinking about those things?"

He removed my hand from his mouth. "I know, it's just... Those guys reminded me... just how weak..." He fell silent, his words dying off on his tongue. He then hugged me tightly, burying his face in my chest. I sighed, wrapping my arms around him. I knew exactly what he was going to say. _Just how weak I really am._

"You aren't weak," I told him softly. "You just get scared easily, that's all..." I sat down, holding him in my lap. This was beginning to become a regular occurence, it seemed. "You can snap a man's arm like a twig without flinching, break a woman's leg without cringing, and bust open someone's skull without thinking twice about it. But the moment someone tries to advance on you sexually, you become like a kid, trying to get away and screaming for someone to save you..." I wasn't going to lie to him. I would tell him the truth, even if it did seem harsh.

A pregnant silence filled the room and I couldn't help but wonder if I had said the wrong thing. I was a bit relieved when he spoke, but his next set of words made my relief short lived.

"Can we talk about it...? What happened...? Back then, I mean..."

**[xXx]**

**Finally finished! :D Please read and review (and give a big hug to kisshufan4ever for helping me!)~!**

**~Dawn**


	3. Chapter 3

_We were eleven at the time when it happened._

_Midnight, Angel, Racer, and I were, at the time, slaves, working day and night in a mine that was believed to hold something truly magnificent somewhere beyond the worthless dirt and rock. We had been far into the mine, our arms tired and guards kept whipping us, telling us to put our backs into it. We were tired. We were hurting. We were hungry._

_I remember what happened like it happened yesterday._

_There was a clang and a clatter, a pickax having fallen to the ground. When I looked at the pickax, I knew instantly what had happened. "Macbeth!" I cried raspily. I saw the young male collapse, panting heavily. His crimson eyes were closed and his face was flush. I knelt beside him, trying to get him to sit up. "Come on, you have to get up... They'll punish you if you don't...!"_

_"I... feel sick..." he rasped, opening his eyes weakly to look at me. It seemed to be too much on him, though, his eyes falling closed once more. "I... can't keep going... like this..."_

_"You have to," I frowned, trying to help him up. I never remembered him being so heavy before. He wasn't trying to support his own weight at all. He was too physically exhausted to even try. "Please, Macbeth..." I managed to get him on his feet once he started to, weakly, move a little bit. "That's it... You can do it..."_

_"What's going on over there?"_

_I had cursed our luck as a guard sauntered over, holding his head high with his nose in the air. It was as if he thought that he was any better than us. I narrowed my eyes at the guard, glaring. "He's sick," I told him. "He's been working too much and he can't hold anything down...!" Just then, Midnight collapsed, his breathing picking up. He was exerting too much of his energy just doing simple things, now. I tried to get him back up on his feet again, but the guard handled that for me._

_Grabbing Midnight roughly by the arm, the guard dragged him up to his feet. He examined him then smirked. If only I had known what that smirk had meant back then... "I'll take care of him, don't you worry," he told me. He picked Midnight up, tossing him over his shoulder like he was some sort of bag of potatoes. "Now, get back to work, brat."_

_After the guard walked away with Midnight over his shoulder, I did as I was told, continuing to work until another guard told me that I could go rest and have a small meal (which had consisted of a small, unsliced loaf of bread and a glass of water). I didn't see Midnight for five days. All I had ignorantly thought back then was, _How sick was he to be gone five days? _But it wasn't that he had been sick all of that time. No. No, it had been something else entirely._

_When Midnight came back, he refused to talk to anyone, even me. He looked... broken. He did his work as usual, ate his bread, drank his water, then fell right asleep, his hands shakily covering his ears. Every time someone tried to touch him, he would lash out at them, trembling. He would begin to heave and shake, but it didn't matter how many times we all tried to ask him what was wrong. He would never tell us._

_That is, until I practically cornered him one day, two weeks after his return._

_"Macbeth," I started softly. I didn't want him running off on me, so I had to be gentle and soft. At least for the moment. He looked at me like a deer caught in a pair of headlights. "Macbeth, will you answer a question for me?" I didn't wait for him to answer. It was as if he couldn't, anyways, since he hadn't spoken a single word to anyone since he came back. "I want to know... what's wrong?" He tried to dodge the question by looking away, his feet moving to get away. I caught him by the arm. "You aren't going to run away from it your whole life. I won't let you."_

_"Let... go..." Midnight told me, trying to take his arm back. It had been the first time I had heard him speak in two weeks... I tightened my hold on him._

_"Not until you tell me what's wrong," I told him. "I promise that I won't tell the others."_

_Midnight stopped struggling, looking me in the eye. He looked scared and frightened. I lightened up on my grip on his arm to try and coax him into telling me. "Promise...?" he asked quietly._

_I nodded._

_He swallowed. He then began to cry, hugging me tightly and suddenly. He let it all out, sobbing and weeping. "I... I tried t-to stop th-them...!" he told me through his broken sobs. I wrapped my arms around him, frowning. He continued. "It... It hurts... Erik, it hurts so much...!"_

_"What hurts? Who made you hurt?" I questioned, holding him closer._

_Midnight bit his lip, taking my hand and holding it tightly. He then guided it to his backside, allowing me to feel just the slightest bit of warmth and stickiness. My eyes widened in horror and in realization. He was bleeding back there. He shouldn't have been bleeding back there. It was only then that I realized what had been done. And who had done it._

_"Those bastards..." I breathed in disbelief. I took my hands and cupped his face in them. "I will _never_ allow them to do that to you again, Macbeth. Do you understand? I promise you that."_

_He shakily placed his hand on mine, his tears still falling and pausing at my thumbs before continuing down his cheeks. "P-promise...?"_

_I laid my forehead against his. "I promise," I repeated softly to him. After that, Brain came and retrieved us, raising us as his own. We grew up together, and all the while, I always kept the promise to Midnight that I had made on that one day. I _never_ allowed anyone to touch him like that ever again. I never wanted him to feel hurt in that way ever again. He was never alone, though. He always had me._

_Always._

"Can we talk about it?"

I closed my eyes, letting a soft sigh escape my lips. He wanted to talk about something that had always bothered him. I've always wanted to know what _exactly_ happened that fucked him up so bad ever since the day I had cornered him and forced him to tell me. But... for some reason, I just don't have it in me to actually hear it and imagine it... "Macbeth..."

"Please, Erik, I want to talk to about it," Midnight begged, fisting my shirt in his hands. When I opened my eyes to look at him, I saw that he was giving me a pleading look. "I don't know if I can keep it to myself anymore..."

I cupped one of his cheeks in my hands, rubbing his jaw slightly with my thumb. If he had the courage to tell me... then I guess I could hear it. "Alright," I told him.

He leaned into my touch, closing his eyes and sighing in relief. "Thank you," he breathed. He then looked at me through half lidded eyes. "It's funny... I want to tell you so badly, but now that I can, I have no idea where to start..." He closed his eyes once more, a silence falling between us. He was thinking of where he should start, so I decided that I would give him an idea.

"Maybe when the guard took you away?"

He nodded. "That sounds like a good place to start." He took a small, deep breath, exhaling before he started his tale.

"I was sick when the guard took me away, but you already knew that. He had taken me to his room. Don't look at me like that; he wasn't the one who harmed me. At least, not until later on..." Midnight shook his head, finding himself getting distracted. "Anyways, he took care of me for two days until I started to feel better. My stomach was always filled and my throat was never dry while he took care of me. Then... Then some of the other guards came in, touching me and kissing me and telling me that it had been the first guard who had told them about me... They told me that he had said that I was free game..." He licked his dry lips a little nervously. Ugh, no plum colored lipstick _still_ bothered the living Hell out of me... "They... they had cut me and bit me and fucked me until I almost felt like dying from the pain alone... Then... the first guard came in the next day... He took me and cleaned me up, telling me that I was just going to be one of the many whores to keep the guards happy... I refused... So, for the last few days, he had raped me, over and over, tearing me open from the inside..."

"So that's why you didn't want any of us to touch you then..." I murmured with a frown.

Midnight nodded. "I can still hear every word that he told me..." he said. "I remember him breathing hot air into my ear and I remember how sick I felt whenever he did it..." He buried his face in my chest, beginning to heave. Talking about it must have made him remember more than that.

"Shh, shh... It's okay," I reassured him. "Calm down... Think about other things..."

Slowly, he began to relax in my arms.

"Is there anything else?"

He shook his head. "Nothing..." He looked up at me with his crimson orbs. "Do you see why I hesitated to tell you before...?"

I nodded. "You didn't want to feel the shame it could have brought you... But Macbeth..." I cupped his cheek again, holding it softly, like a lover's caress (for the lack of a better term). "Nobody would have shamed you for it... It was against your will..."

"I know that," Midnight murmured softly, placing his hand on top of mine. "But back then, I was too scared to even try to voice it... You know how I told you about it in the first place..."

"That guard kept doing it, didn't he? That was why you were still bleeding even though it had been two weeks..."

"Please don't tell anyone..."

"I already promised you that, didn't I?" I smiled gently. "You don't have to worry about a thing. My lips are sealed tight." To prove a point, I took my hand from his cheek and made a zipper motion across my lips, pretended to lock it, and threw away the imaginary key. He chuckled softly at my actions, finding some sort of amusement in what I did.

"Thank you, Erik..." he told me. "Thank you..."

A knock came from the door and I cursed our luck. "Are you fucking kidding me...?" I grumbled. I stood with Midnight still clinging to me, his nails lightly digging into my skin. I noticed that the black paint on his nails was beginning to chip off in small fragments. I knew that when the paint was gone, that, too, would bug the ever living Hell out of me. When I unlocked the door and peered out, it was a smirking Bixslow that greeted us. I felt relieved until he started to speak. Then I wanted to just punch him in the throat and rip out that damn tongue of his.

"Were you two doing the _no-pants dance_ in the closet?" he teased us, clicking his tongue in disapproval. "Freed and Laxus would be so jealous if they found out that you two did that before they even noticed their feewings for each odder!" He deliberately made the last bit sound childish and irritating. I glared darkly at him, not nearly as amused as he was. He noticed and backed off, holding his hands up in surrender. "Hey, now, calm down. I was just joking. No need to give me the stink eye."

"Yeah, well you aren't funny," I grumbled, walking out of the closet with Midnight. We brushed past him and headed back towards the cafeteria. The guards wouldn't have noticed that we were gone and I was pretty sure that even if they did, Laxus would have somehow managed to cover for us. Either him or Freed, anyways. Speaking of Freed...

"Where did you two go?"

I kind of forgot that he was supposed to watch over us, even though the blond leader of our group relieved him of that duty earlier in the day.

Whoops.

"Midnight wanted to talk to me alone, so we went somewhere more private," I replied. I then glared as we sat down. Everyone else had gone up to put away their tray or they had left (by the looks of it, anyways). "You make a sex reference from that and I swear to you now..." I allowed my threat to trail off, leaving it to linger in the air. The greenette raised a brow at my words.

"Relax, I wasn't going to," snorted Freed. He then got why I would say that, the expression on his face changing slightly. It was unmistakable - he had run into the same problem at some point, and I was willing to bet that with what little money I had that the 'problem' had caught him and Laxus hiding out somewhere alone together and cracked a few not so appropriate jokes about them as well. "Bixslow?"

Midnight nodded in response, slowly dislatching himself from my person. He must have figured that it would have been for the best that I didn't respond while I was still on the verge of blowing my top. "It's alright now, though," he told him. "We talked about what we wanted to talk about. Right, E-Cobra?" He glanced at me a little apologetically. He had almost said my real name out loud, not that I had noticed at the time. It wasn't until later that I noticed thanks to Freed telling me.

"Yeah," I said calmly, calming myself. Midnight always had that weird affect on me. I would be pissed beyond all belief and boundries and somehow, with his words, no matter what they were, always calmed me down. I remember him doing that over the years that we had spent together since we were taken from that mine, keeping me from probably murdering about another hundred or so people in the process. Strange that I never really noticed until now. "We did."

**[xXx]**

**And there's chapter three! Yay! XD I finally got off my lazy bum and I was productive. I have a little over 1k on a new fanfiction (that I probably won't post until I finish at least two more fanfictions XD), I had finished a 5k fanfiction yesterday (it's posted as a one-shot for Hetalia~), I have nearly 1k on another fanfiction (again, probably won't post until I finshed at least two more fanfictions), I finished chapter five of **_**Aftermath**_** (Makai Ouji), and I have an idea for yet another new fanfiction, but I plan for it to be a cutesy one-shot, so if I do work on it, it won't be for too long. XD**

**Anyways, read and review, my lovelies! I love reading what you all have to say about my work and it inspires me greatly to work on it more!**

**~Dawn**


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